Friday, February 12, 2010

Here is a great Dr. Seuss Day art project for your little ones. Inspired by my favorite "One Fish Two Fish", this lesson is perfect for any lower elementary grade including Kinders.

Supplies:

2 @ 12" x 18" white paper

black oil pastel

blue, yellow, green and red tempera paint

glitter

The younger the student, the more time you'll need talking/demonstrating eye placement. I like to have the kids point to where the eye should go and then when they get a thumbs-up from me, they are free to draw a black dot. Here's my thinking: Since we're working with oil pastel (which the children can't erase) you want to make certain they leave ample room to draw the body or else the fish might be small.Starting at the far left (if they chose a swimming fish) or near the top (standing fish) gives the children plenty of space to draw the body.Whew! That was long, huh? It's important though.

To draw the fish: I read the first few pages of the book and point out the different fish illustrations, then on the white board, I draw two styles of fish: one swimming across the paper (horizontal) and one standing up (vertical). I do a directed line drawing for both.I don't have a handout, but here are the steps:

Draw two dots for eyes for standing fish or one dot for swimming

Add a circle around the eye(s) and add eyelashes if you wish

Standing:Draw a curved line over the top of the eyes and move the line all the way down the paper and curve up like a letter "J" . Then, draw a similar line on the opposite side and join together at the tail.

Swimming: starting in front of the eye, move the pastel along the top of the paper to form an arch, then make another line starting at the eye draw a line around the bottom of the paper towards the tail. Both lines can be wiggly or curved. Whatever you like!

For the standing fish make fins and add lines inside the body for scales. Do the same for the swimming fish and add a funny looking tail.

Pretty basic instructions, but if you look at the kids drawing you'll see that any shape will do. Just have fun!Now that the drawing is done, set out some paints (limit the colors so you don't end up with mud) and paint the fish.After the fish dries, trace over the oil pastel lines with black and add some patterns with other colors of oil pastel if you wish.Cut out the fish. This is a great project for practicing cutting skills!Now, take the other white paper and paint stripes from one side to the other.

If you wish, you can glam up your Dr. Seuss art project by adding some glitter. While the stripes are still wet, sprinkle with glitter and shake excess off into a big tub.

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